A page from the diary of Mother Earth
by StoryWebber
Summary: It is about how Mother Earth assumes the guise of a woman and roams the cities of India asking for help from pollution and global warming.


Thursday,

2nd August 2012.

Dear diary,

I'm writing after a long time because I've been really ill the past few days. It all started a few days back. I was just growing a stretch of forget-me-nots in the wetlands of Siberia, when I incurred a sudden headache. It almost split my head apart. I've known for a long time now that I'm not as fresh and energetic as I was a few millenniums ago. But I never expected it to affect me so badly. Along with the headache, I started choking. Hurriedly, I drank a draught of water and that settled the choking a little. But this was a serious situation. I realized that mere medicine couldn't solve the problem. I had to find the root cause of my deteriorating health. It was time, I thought, to assume the form of an animal, and go down to find out what was causing this. Looking carefully, I saw that a microscopic creature that walked on two legs had become prevalent on Earth. So I turned myself into one of those little creatures and set off on my mission.

As soon as I descended, I was met with a pleasant sight. The little flowers and plants that I had created were dancing happily in the breeze. I was satisfied, there was nothing here that could be the reason for my ailment. Oh, little did I know at that time that my jungles, beautiful and green, had been converted into concrete jungles, by these odd creatures on two legs, which were called _humans_. I had no inkling of the fact that as soon as I grew grass, trees, bushes and greenery, somewhere else on me, the humans destroyed all of them.

Happily, I moved on, to find that I was on an uninhabited island. I saw a lagoon sparling somewhere in the sea. Mangroves made a beautiful margin all around the island. I decided to explore more. During my previous sojourn, all I had seen was destruction and devastation. Yes… that was when a meteor had struck me, and had caused the extinction of the huge dinosaurs. I was inflicted with a huge backache at the time and I was damaged badly with bruises all over me. But let me tell you, that was much easier to bear than this unknown disease that I have now.

I flew over the seas and came to mainland. And what a terrible sight greeted me there! The humans were dotted over the place. They had built some kind of monstrous shelters on me, which they called 'towers'.

They had cut off all my beautiful trees and replaced them with 'roads', and 'public parks' which were nothing but a group of poorly-cared-for plants that were withering out of thirst. I supposed that they believe it would atone for their sins to build these 'parks' of almost dead plants! Foolish little things! They do not know that what they have done will eventually bring my end, and so, their own! I saw lakes and swamps, whose waters had been encroached upon by these greedy materialists. I saw the mass destruction of trees. I found the root-cause of my choking, polythene bags scattered all around. I saw that not only were they gagging me, but were also killing my other creatures, who could not distinguish between plastic bags and food and ended up eating the toxic polythene. I saw the complete degradation of my skin, the fertile soil. I saw them fighting against themselves for the right to _own_ land. Don't they know that the land they fight for cannot belong to one person? It belongs to all my children, all the living beings on me. I saw that their greed and ego and thirst for power has clouded their minds and made them lose their heads. I saw the cruelty in their behaviour

and attitude. I saw that they had intelligence, but not wisdom. But, I also saw something that gave me a little hope, I saw that there _were_ some of them who still had their wits, who realized that their actions had gone a little too far. These small pockets of people seemed to be trying to prevent the others from harming me. They seemed to be trying to produce a little less of waste material and then put the rest of the waste into small areas to be reused. Yes! This could give me some renewed energy. And some of the bacteria seemed to be trying hard to produce less poisonous gases.

The only problem was, these pockets of good bacteria were few and far between. I feared that they were fighting a losing battle.

So, I decided to make the work easier for these good creatures. I would help them spread awareness among people about my health condition and about what would happen if something wasn't done soon enough.

I roamed around the strange place, trying to find someone of authority, so I could explain the problem to them. That's when I came across a bigger and brighter building than the rest. It was written 'Government office, Bangalore', on it. Figuring that there was no better alternative, I went in to lodge a complaint there. The people there told me to wait in the waiting room for a bit, and then they would call me for a private meeting with the head officer there. I sat on the strange thing they showed me, called a 'couch'. It was very uncomfortable, but being tired of roaming around, I dozed off. When I awoke, it was night, and there was not a single soul around there. Then I looked around and saw a peon, who had been trying to wake me up, but in vain, for I was not used to moving from my place at all and it had been too much exertion for me to walk around, all the more because of my current situation. The peon interrupted my thoughts, 'Madam, what are you doing here at this time? The office closed long back. Now move out of here, or the Boss will scold me.' I took pity on the poor fellow, but I was furious that those lazy people had not stuck to their words.

I searched for someone to confide in for many days, but found no one at all. Everyone was too busy, and could spare no time at all for 'trivial matters such as saving the Earth'. I almost gave up hope of living for more than a year since then.

But then, as if by miracle, I found this old place, that the young ones of the humans frequented every day, and came back home only in the evening. Curious, I visited that place, called 'school'. It turned out to be a centre for shaping the young ones. There they were taught many of the important virtues of life, honesty, courage, truthfulness, but most important of all, they were taught to help Mother Earth, they were taught how to avoid wastage and misuse of resources. They were taught that if Earth was not saved, they would all perish. Looking at these innocent little faces, an array of hope shot through me. Indeed, they were very lovable. Once their mind was made up, they worked hard to achieve their goals. I smiled a little smile to myself, knowing that though the good humans were few, they were doing their best to ensure that I, my plants, my creatures, and my humans would be saved. It was a hard battle to fight, but it was not decidedly a losing battle. In fact, there were a good many chances that I would make a good comeback. It was just a matter of time. I also knew that once the lesson was taught, the humans would never forget it, for despite their faults, they had good memory! Hahaha!

Hoping that the issue would be solved and I would regain my good health, I assumed my own form once again.

Even now, I am monitoring the humans' activities. I think the good humans are growing in number, because, slowly, my headache is lessening, my fever is not as bad as before and my resplendent green canopy is being regrown. Recycling and reusing are done wherever and whenever possible. I think that the humans have realized they haven't woven the web of life. They are but one thread in it and whatever they do to the web, they do to themselves!


End file.
